Kamis, 02 Juli 2009

How Google Ad Sense calculates cheated clicks:

First is the IP address and geographical location. If you click on the advertisement will have to go with an IP address from which you go at least once in your account – you are a cheater, immediately and irrevocably!

Secondly. More advanced users use dynamic IP! Yes, disconnect from the Internet, and join again, you change your IP, but Google for each click computer places on your computer Cookies.

Third – your modem or router, or LAN-card with your number (ID, Hardware address, Mac-address) – this is for Google to find how criminalists – fingerprints at the crime scene.

In the fourth “underlined” click. You do not need to study philosophy in order to understand what should be the visitor of your site or blog that clicks on an advertisement as soon as looked at the site without reading it. Or click on the advertisement, and soon came back. And in general, why “clicker” has got to your blog or website for direct contact, rather than on the search query or links from another site?

The fifth – a clear violation of Google Ad Sense. “Make money by clicking on the ads” – even if you do not post this text directly sooner or later Google will find it. Again ban again no money.

Sixth – your top resource. If your blog or website is new and there are no links on the Internet, your site is not to issue a search request, and the number of visitors is very little – it is very suspicious.

If you read everything carefully, you probably have noticed that you can be banned even if you are crystal clear – you do not do fake click, but by working with your Gmail mailbox at their workplace (or in Internet cafes). Be careful!

Good luck, and the big check from Google and if you are doing your business fair then probably you won’t get banned by Google!

If you’re using AdWords or AdSense you must have heard about an emerging practice in the underworld of computing called “click fraud”. But what exactly is click fraud and how is it accomplished?

Well AdSense uses a payment mechanism that awards a certain amount of money to a publisher (someone who holds an AdSense banner on their page) every time a person clicks on the said banner. So click fraud is the attempt to have people clicking the ads just so that they can earn a greater income.

There are people setting up sites for the sole purpose of fraudulently generating revenue through Google’s AdSense program. These users achieve an incredible number of clicks through many methods, some complex and sophisticated and some rudimentary and simple.

One of the most complex is through the use of so called “hitbots”. These are automated programs who emulate clicking the links in AdSense banners (there are some that actually click the banners as well).

Google’s AdSense protection scheme is by no means perfect and nearly anyone can find the details of surmounting the protection mechanism, ironically just by doing a Google search.

Another, more rudimentary method is to hire a lot of people in a poor country to click the links on your site. This means these people will actually sit all day and just click links so you can earn a fortune. They come from very poor countries like India, and they’re prepared to do so for just $0.50 an hour.

Of course, there’s a problem with this mechanism. Once Google receives a large number of clicks from a single address, the address and the site that had the AdSense banner will be banned, and the illicit behavior might even get the fraudster sued.

To prevent this from happening, many people use a large number of proxy servers for the purpose of clicking. These are basically trojans, located on computers throughout the world (though mostly in the US). What’s even more daunting is that these clicks will appear to originate from an actual computer so such scams are really hard to detect.

And don’t think this happens only in isolated instances. There is a great deal of illegal activity in this domain.

In fact there’s so much that if search engine companies don’t increase their security with such programs as AdSense, such criminal behavior could become more become even more damaging.

Google has a very strict policy regarding click fraud, and it has sued those employing such techniques in the past. But while the search engine giant tries its best to minimize the risk of click fraud there’s certainly room for a lot of improvement.

It is estimated that more then 20% of the clicks that follow an AdSense link are just done in order to get money from the person paying for the ad. Some people believe the number of fraudulent clicks to be even twice as large.

There are a great deal more schemes involving click fraud, such as groups of AdSense publishers clicking each other’s links (which is referred to as “clicking rings”, or spamming people so that they click such links.

Despite Google still holding click fraud on a leash, the phenomenon is certainly raising concerns for the advertisers on AdWords, but despite this advertising with Google’s AdSense still remains more profitable for the advertiser, as opposed to traditional untargeted advertising schemes.

There are some means of protection against such schemes and all advertisers should be savvy enough to employ them. Many advertisers choose to avoid the content network all together for fear of click fraud. Read more other articles about breast cancer stage and pancreatic cancer symptoms.

Selasa, 30 Juni 2009

Since the dawn of the internet, more and more people have turned to it for everything from communicating with friends and family, find old schoolmates, and academic research to marketing products and services and expanding and growing businesses. Now, many people even rely on it to make money online. Just over the past five years, the internet has bloomed with tons of ways to make money at home. This opportunity presents people with a wide array of options. However, for those who aren't too familiar with the internet and how to utilize it to make money, things can seem a bit tricky.

Today, more websites are growing and with that growth comes a number of different opportunities. The best thing about it is that even those who aren't internet savvy can easily take advantage of those opportunities as things are either very easy to use or a number of different resources are available to help them understand everything they need to make money online. Even better opportunities stem from the fact that large companies are tapping the internet now more than ever to market and advertise their products. This is because only the World Wide Web will allow them to easily and relatively inexpensively tap different markets across the globe. Corporations do not even need to fork out huge sums of money to pay salaries and benefits to actual employees to handle marketing and advertising online. They tend to prefer hiring freelancers or contractual agents online. This presents a huge opportunity for people who are looking into online money-making activities.

Also a huge opportunity to make money online is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is becoming very popular because it doesn't require a lot of work to manage or a lot of money to start. Once it starts growing, any affiliate marketing business can also become a huge money-maker.

Paid surveys is another opportunity to make money online. The companies always in need of consumer insights and opinions on their products. So they hire market research firm to conduct online survey and pay anyone who participates in their online survey. While online paid survey isn't offering full-time income potential but it can be a great source of extra income.

For those who enjoy writing and have the skills for it, there are already many different sites and platforms that offer great opportunities. Most of them involve article writing and content creation. Blogging and e-book writing are also great ways to make money online. Blogging can be fun as you can write in a informal way and share your stories. When your blog attracted

Apart from writing, there are many other things that will allow you to earn a decent income online. No matter what your current set of skills and knowledge contains, you can surely find a good opportunity for you. The World Wide Web is really a fantastic place to earn a good income and have the financial freedom that many dream of having. Of course, you have to be smart and be wary of scams. Although it may sometimes be difficult to tell whether an opportunity is a scam or not, most of the time all you will need is common sense. By taking advantage of the opportunities that are already available online, you can easily achieve the work-life balance you've always hoped to have.

Twitter is a Micro-Blogging and Social Networking website that enables us to reach our targeted audience with our massages in the form of tweets that can carry up to 140 characters. There has been lots of buzz about Twitter all over the internet since Twitter was launched in 2006 by Jack Dorsey. There are hundreds of applications and software available on internet that promises to help you increase your Twitter followers and help to make money online with your Twitter account.

And to start making some real money with Twitter, you need lots of targeted followers in your Twitter account. I recently heard about a service Twitter Traffic Machine developed by Bill Crosby which can help you add thousands of targeted followers into your Twitter account within few months time only. Bill Crosby was able to add 20000 new targeted followers in his Twitter account in three months time only. So Twitter Traffic Machine can be an amazing system for people who want to see a big list of targeted subscribers against their names on Twitter.

Twitter Traffic Machine is a 6 lesson video series where Bill tells about many free tools and software’s we can use to add thousands of targeted users into our Twitter account. We have to pay only $27 to use this system and come with 60 day money back guarantee without any reason or question being asked.

We may not be able to create ten thousands of targeted followers to our credit if we try adding followers one by one manually in years even. So Twitter Traffic Machine can really do lots of wonder for you if you use it with bets of your ability.

And when we have thousands of subscribers into our Twitter account who are really interested in my niche and products or services we offer, we can sell or promote any product in my niche. So Twitter Traffic Machine is not only a big Followers building system but also a cool system to help you make some real money with your Twitter account.

So you want to make money online. It’s a lot easier than you think. You may have heard that you need money to make money, but when making money online that is not the case. This is no make quick money rich thing, but it will at least make you some cash and from there you can expand.

Well you do need at least some money before making the big money, but I can show you how to get that. First, you want to make some money by forum posting. You can make 10 to 20 cents per post, and it adds up quick. I recommend Digital Point forums to find forum posting jobs.You could also write articles. You can sell your articles for up to 5 dollars on the Digital Point forums. Make sure that you write about something you know about that you think people will actually buy.

You actually need some writing skill too, but it’s not like there expecting you to be Shakespeare.

Designing is definitely the best way to make some start-up cash. Design logos for people and charge around 50 dollars. Design sites or blogs and charge 200 or 300. There is a ton you can do and jobs are plentiful. Try to build up a decent portfolio because that will help you make money later.

Now, you can buy a domain. You want to try and buy a good .com or .net one. Build a blog or site on it and load it with articles. Make sure that it has a good design or it will ward off potential buyers.

Now try to sell it in forums. You want to try to get money based on how many articles there are. For 10 articles you should get 150 dollars.

Once you do that invest the money to buy articles for more blogs or sites. Then you can repeat the process.

This can eventually make you a ton of money. Think about it, 16 blogs times 150 is 2000 dollars. Keep expanding and you can make a full income doing it.

Having a home-based business has become quite popular not only because trying to get a job is becoming a big problem but also become the convenience and potential it provides is unmatched. A lot of people nowadays engage themselves in this type of business because of the comfort and flexibility it allows. With a home-based business, you do not have to put up with a controlling boss, an unreasonable company policy, or a number of gossiping co-workers.

If you are looking into building your own home-based business, you should know that the World Wide Web will be your key to success only if you are able to harness its power. It will provide you with not only up-to-date information on your chosen field but platforms for communication and promotion as well.

To help you make the most out of the World Wide Web and build a prosperous home-based business, follow the tips below:

1) Plan it Out

Prior to launching your home-based business, learn exactly what you are getting into. Find out as much as you can about the market you plan to target and how best to communicate with them. Also determine whether you will be offering products or services. If you will be offering products, will they be in physical or digital form? Which online platforms will be most beneficial to your online business?

These are details you should ponder on and lay out before you can build your home-based business. It would be best if you can develop a business plan detailing the ins and outs of what exactly you want to offer and how you will offer them. But perhaps the most important part of planning out your home-based business is making sure that you will like what you will be doing. Detail your plan such that you can achieve success without burden on your part. You wouldn't want to trade your regular job for another dreary one, would you?

2) Schedule Your Tasks

If you want to succeed with your home-based business, you need to handle it professionally. Will you be working on regular office hours? Are you willing to work all week or only on certain days? Whatever schedule you decide to pursue, be sure to follow it religiously. It would be best if you can schedule your daily work load so you know exactly what tasks you need to complete each day.

Scheduling your daily tasks is important in making sure you work out each and every detail of your home-based business without allowing yourself to feel overworked. Building and maintaining a home-based business is a lot of work but all you need is responsible time management to succeed.

3) Harness Your Craft

Once you have already started your home-based business, you need to keep looking for ways to improve it. Continue learning and always keep yourself updated on the most recent trends within your niche. Note that there's a lot of competition online and you always need an edge. The better your edge is over your competitors, the better service you can provide to your customers.

These are three simple tips you can follow if you're interested in building a prosperous home-based business. Keep them in mind and follow them in order to ensure that your efforts are worthwhile.

Article marketing is being considered a highly effective method to advertise your affiliate program and to increase traffic and earnings as well. Creating articles that are in connection with your affiliate programs will drive traffic to your site and thus greater potential of generating more sales. Not to mention several other advantages for your affiliate website.

To begin with, ensure that your articles have top quality and useful content for your audience. The articles that you submit should be comprehensible and expressive. Don’t forget that need to connect with your audience, letting them know that you are an expert regarding affiliate marketing programs which you are advertising for. Be careful not to directly and obviously sell the products to them, as they will instantly loose interest in the article and you.

Online marketers are always looking for new information and content. Most of the time, they are looking for ways to deal with problems. Basically, with your article you are supplying a need, offering them the information they are searching for. Once, the “connection” established, they will most likely click on the link to your affiliate website, to have access to more information.

Explain briefly the advantages of the advertised product for your audience, in case you are advertising a certain product or affiliate program. Don’t forget to add keywords in your description about the affiliate programs or products. It is recommended to get in touch with your audience’s feelings, showing them that you understand them and their problems.

Build confidence in you and in your products, as well as in your affiliate website, rather than simply trying to sell them to your audience. Another not at all negligible aspect of article marketing is that providing that it is a top quality and useful article, it will drive traffic to your site, and thus increase your sales. If you have submitted a great article, other webmaster will probably publish it on their site.

Thus, your article is being distributed all over the internet, and being read by more and more people. As it is published at other sites too, with your name and link attached to it, you are getting free back links to your affiliate website.

When you submit your articles to different article directories, you are getting back links to your affiliate site, as long as you have completed the resource box with your name and website link. These back links will rapidly increase, as you are writing and submitting further articles. Properly used, article marketing is one of the greatest and effective marketing methods to advertise for free your affiliate programs.

As I mentioned before, the submitted articles will provide you a back link to your site. Search engines in general consider these back links to your site highly important in ranking the importance of your site on the Internet. So, the more links are pointing to your website, the higher the search engine ranking is. With a higher ranking, your site is better positioned in the search engine’s search results.

I am sure that you could write virtually almost countless number of articles about and related to your affiliate program. However, if you run out of ideas, or need inspiration for a new article, there are numerous PLR articles you can turn to. The possibilities are endless in terms of driving traffic to your affiliate website, with article marketing campaigns. But, for that you need to get started writing and publishing them.

If you hadn't already guessed, the Web is not going to be the wellspring of wealth that a lot of people assumed it would. Some people will get very wealthy, but other people will earn nothing, and, in the nature of business fail and go out of business.

However, if your goals are a bit more modest, it is not unreasonable to expect your Web site to bring you some extra cash. Perhaps pay for the Web service it's running on and take your family out to eat once or twice a month. Perhaps more.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are a simple way for you to get some extra cash coming from your Web site. An affiliate program is where you partner with another company, usually an ecommerce company, to sell their product from your Web site. For every product you sell, you get a portion of the proceeds. The best known affiliate program sells books for Amazon.com, but you can sell anything from car ads to fishing flies.

Advertisements

Many sites have advertising on them, and they are another way to add a revenue stream from your Web site. The money from advertising comes in two ways: first from the number of people who view the ad and second from the number of "click-throughs" on the ad. Basically, if your site gets a lot of hits (and so a lot of people will see the ad) it will get a better rate for advertisements. But even sites that have lower hit rates might have high numbers of clicks on the ad, and this will get you a better rate as well.

Advertising can take the form of banner ads, which usually cost a lot, or just sponsored links. You can see examples of each of those on About.com as well. The banner ads on the top, bottom and sides cost more than the sponsored links on the bottom, and they each bring in different amounts of revenue.

Other Resources

There are lots of articles and information on how to raise money from your Web site. If you're interested in advertising, look at my Advertising resources. Affiliate programs (also called Associate programs) are listed on my Making Money resources page, as well as information on how to get started with associate programs and advertising on your site. If you are ready to move on to more advanced money making, then you should read my ECommerce resource page.

You've probably heard before a lot of hype about how much money you can make with affiliate programs. Maybe you've even set up a site yourself, only to find that after buying the domain, a few bucks a month in hosting, software or a web designer to design your site, etc., that the piddly affiliate fees hardly even covered your cost. Well, here's the hype-free way to really make money with an Amazon.com affiliate site. And it'll only take a day to make the site. The secret? Low cost, low effort.Difficulty: HardTime Required: One day

Here's How:

If you don't already know it, learn some basic HTML. You have to do this to keep your costs down and still get what you want. Even if the site is basically laid out for you, you're going to need to know how to insert images, create hyperlinks, and do some basic text formatting. Our HTML Guide offers a free 10-week HTML class and a great collection of beginning HTML tutorials. Get over any anxiety you have about this. Just do it. You'll thank me for it later.

Decide on your topic. You're going to be doing product reviews and recommendations, so pick a topic that you enjoy and know something about. If you can't stay passionate about the topic, that will show, and it also won't hold your interest. Choose a narrow enough niche to be distinctive, e.g., bands from your city, left-handed guitarists, music for a certain kind of dancing, authors of a certain religion, books about arts & crafts, etc.

Choose your domain name. Make it keyword-rich, not clever. Think how people will find your site in the search engines. Here are some ideas (all available when I first wrote this, though a cfew have been snatched up):Music: BandsFromTexas.com, BandOutOfBoston.com, SouthpawGuitarists.com, ClassicPsychedelia.com, Non-Stop-Hip-Hop.com, Merengue-Music.comBooks: Mormon-Authors.com, Arts-and-Crafts-Books.com, Books-by-Stephen-King.com, ClassicBusinessBooks.comOthers: Best-Baby-Toys.com, MomsMags.com, FelliniMovies.com

Register your domain name. If you're not technically inclined at all, register your domain wherever you set up your hosting in step 5. Otherwise, you can save a few bucks by choosing a lower-cost provider. Not a big deal for one or two sites, but it can be for ten or twenty. I use GoDaddy, who have great domain management tools and are less than $10 a year. The least expensive I've found from a reputable source is 1&1, whose price is around $7 a year last I checked.

Set up your web hosting. This is where most people get burned. For this kind of site, you do not need $10 a month web hosting! Our Online Business Guide has a list of Cheap Web Hosting for Under $10. Some are as little as $4 a month, with unlimited domains, i.e., you can run several sites like this on the same hosting package.

Install blog software. "Blog, you say?" Yes. It will give your site all the structure you need, plus make it easy to quickly post new content. My pick is WordPress, which is open source (i.e., free), easy to install and use, and yet very powerful. Many hosts have a one-step installation process for it, or you can download it and follow their installation instructions.

Make it pretty. One of the great things about WordPress is the huge variety of templates available for it -- they can completely change the look-and-feel. Our Weblogs Guide has a list of 5 Sites for Free Wordpress Themes, where you can find hundreds of free WordPress themes.

Set up categories. Most blog software allows you to create sub-categories to help organize your entries. This will help visitors narrow in even more specifically on their interests. For example, BandsFromTexas.com might have one group of categories for genre — rock, country, blues, etc. — and another for city of origin — Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, etc.

Sign up as an Amazon Associate. It's simple and free. Just visit Amazon and click on the Join Associates link at the bottom of the page (here's a direct link for your convenience). Your site should already have at least the basic setup done, even if you don't have any content there yet, as they'll review the site manually before approval.

Create your blog posting bookmarks/links. There are two links that are going to be essential for you to make this easy. First is the blog posting link. In your blog software, on the posting page (see their instructions), at the bottom of the page there should be a "bookmarklet". Click on the link (and hold the mouse) and drag it up to your Links toolbar in your browser (assuming Internet Explorer), or your Favorites menu. This will allow you to blog a product with one mouse click.

Create your Amazon Build-A-Link bookmark/link. This will make it easy to build the link with your affiliate ID built in. Log in to Associates Central, look in the left navigation sidebar, go to Build-A-Link, and under Static Links, find Individual Items. Click and drag this onto your Links toolbar or Favorites menu.

Build your first link. Go to Amazon and log in with your Associates account. Find the product you want to review and use the Site Stripe (gray stripe at the top of the screen that you'll see when logged in as an Associate) to get your personalized link to the item. They also offer a variety of other options for creating links and banners.

Blog your review. Now click on your blog posting link (Press It! by default in WordPress). If you're using WordPress, you should now see two pieces of link code in your posting form, the first one ending with "Associates Build-A-Link >< /a >". Delete through that point. The second part is a link to the product with your Amazon Associate ID built in. Now just write your product review, choose the appropriate categories for it, and hit Publish.

Build out your site. Before you promote your site, you want to have some substantial content there. Write several product reviews. Have at least 2-3 in each category you've created. You may also want to make a categories for articles, news, and commentary about your topic. The more content your site has, the better. And the great thing is that while you're writing all this, the search engines are getting notified automatically, assuming you turned on the notifications mentioned in step 6.

Promote your site. The best free way to do this is to communicate with other bloggers writing about similar topics, and to participate in online communities where your topic is discussed. See the Online Business Networking category for ideas, as well as the Internet Marketing category.

Tips:

You have to learn some basic HTML and basic concepts about running a web site. It's just not that hard. If you have to rely on purchased software, you won't be able to get exactly what you want, you won't know what to do when things go wrong, and you'll end up spending money you don't need to. Spend the time to learn it. It will be well worth the investment.

I slightly recommend music over books and other products, mainly because you can listen to the clips of an entire album in about 10 minutes and get a good enough feel for it (without buying it) to do a short review. If you have another topic that you're passionate about, great, but make sure you have a unique angle on the topic. People can get reviews about a lot of those consumer products anywhere. You need to give them a reason to come to your site.

To pick up some extra pennies, sign up for Google AdSense. It probably won't generate a lot of revenue, but it's free to sign up and completely effortless to maintain.

Set reasonable expectations for earnings. You've only invested $20. You're going to make 5% on most products. That means that you need to sell $400 worth of stuff to make back your investment. To make $20 an hour, what you write must generate $400 worth of purchases. You get credit for other purchases customers you send make while at Amazon besides just the product you linked to, so it's not as hard as it may sound. It won't make you rich, but it's not hard to be profitable, and it builds over time.

Making money online used to pretty much require you to have your own Web site, products to sell and some marketing savvy. But a new generation of dot-coms have arisen that will pay you for what you know and who you know without you having to be a web designer or a marketing genius.

But it's hard to tell hype from the real deal. I did a search on "make money online" and "making money online", and much of the information out there is just promoting various infoproducts, mostly about Internet marketing. I see why people sometimes ask, "Is anyone making money online besides Internet marketing experts?"

So I put together a list of business opportunities with legitimate companies that:

Pay cash, not just points towards rewards or a chance to win money

Don't require you to have your own Web domain or your own products

Don't involve any hard-selling

Aren't just promoting more Internet marketing

Give a good return on your time investment

In the interest of objectivity, none of the links below are affiliate links, and none of them have paid or provided any other consideration for their presence here. These are legitimate companies with business models that allow you to get paid for a wide range of activities.

Help friends find better jobs.

Sites like ReferEarns, Zyoin, Who Do You Know For Dough?, Bohire and WiseStepp connect employers with prospective employees, many of whom are already employed and not actively job-hunting, via networking - the people who know these qualified candidates. Rewards for referring a candidate who gets hired range from $50 on up to several thousand dollars - not chump change. If you know a lot of job-seekers (and who doesn't these days?), this is a great way to break into the recruiting business with no overhead.

Connect suppliers with buyers.

Referral fees are a common practice in business, but they haven't been used much in online networking sites because there was no way to track them. Sites like Salesconx, InnerSell and uRefer now provide that. Vendors set the referral fees they're willing to pay (and for what), and when the transaction happens, you get paid. uRefer also allows merchants to set up referral programs for introductions and meetings, as well as transactions.

Write.

A growing number of sites will pay for your articles or blog posts. Associated Content and Helium will "pay for performance" based on page views for just about anything you want to write about. Articles on specific topics they're looking for can earn direct payments up to about $200. The rates are probably low for established writers, but if you're trying to break into the field and have time on your hands, they're a great way to start. Also, a lot of companies are looking for part-time bloggers. They may pay per post or on a steady contract. Our Weblogs Guide posts blogging jobs weekly in the forum.

Start your own blog.

You don't have to have your own Web site, or install blogging software, or even figure out how to set up the advertising. At Blogger you can set up a blog for free in less than five minutes without knowing a thing about web design, and Blogger even automates setting up Google AdSense so you can make money off your blog by displaying ads and getting paid when people click on the ads. To make even more money from it, set up an affiliate program (see below) for books, music, etc., and insert your affiliate links whenever you refer to those items. You'll have to get a lot of traffic to become a six-figure blogger, but pick an interesting topic, write well, tell all your friends, and you're off to a good start.

Are you an expert on a particular niche topic? Can you put together an overview of the topic and assemble some of the best resources on the topic from around the web? Then you can create topical hubs and get paid through sites like Squidoo, HugPages and Google Knol. Payments are based on a combination of ad revenue and affiliate fees. You'll get higher rates doing it on your own, but these sites have a built-in supply of traffic and tools to make content creation easier.

Advertise other people's products.

If you already have a Web site or a blog, look for vendors that offer related but non-competing products and see if they have an affiliate program. Stick to familiar products and brands - they're easier to sell. To promote those products:

Place simple text or graphical ads in appropriate places on your site

Include links to purchase products you review or recommend in a blog, discussion forum or mailing list you control

Create a dedicated sales page or Web site to promote a particular product

They all work - it just depends on how much time you have to spend on it and your level of expertise with Web design and marketing.

You don't have to be a professional photographer to sell your photos for money. People are constantly in need of stock photography for websites, presentations, brochures and so on, and are willing to pay for the right image. People generally search for images on stock photography sites by keywords, not by photographer, so you have the same chance as anyone else of having your image picked. Just be careful that you don't have images of trademarked brands, copyrighted art or people's faces that are readily identifiable (unless you have a model release), but just about anything else is fair game, and I promise - you'd be amazed what people need pictures of, so don't make any assumptions. If it's a decent photo, upload it. Some sites to get you started include Fotolia, ShutterStock, Dreamstime and iStockphoto. The great thing about this is that it's truly "set it and forget it".

The above list is by no means comprehensive, but it highlights some of the new and interesting ways to make money online without investing any money, without having a product of your own, and without having expert sales and marketing skills. Most of all, unlike taking surveys or getting paid to read e-mail, the potential return on your time investment is substantial.